A good year ago, I really had a headache wondering why my beloved MLs do not deliver what they are supposed to. My main problem was soundstage/imaging and clarity. It was just not right, not even close.
Talking to other audio loonies I was dragged into the realm of room treatments. I have invited a fellow, who has made some measurements and I ended up with two diffusers placed behind the speakers (and one actually in between them). It was a definite improvement, though I have to admit, that bringing the speakers front from about 1,5-2 feet to 3-3,5 was the best bang for the buck change so far - albeit insufficient.
Then two friends came over; and they had two absorbers that we have placed behind the speakers. It was a definite improvement over the diffusers but the downside was that these were made with mineral wool and neither of us was convinced that the mineral wool will stay in its designated housing.
Then a bit later the overall picture improved light-years with a new preamp, cables and a DAC (despite all of them being reasonably priced local DIYs) but imaging still had plenty of room for improvement.
The diffusers were OK, but I have recalled that the absorbers gave better results in terms of soundstage and imaging.
To find an alternative of mineral wool (or glass fiber) I have taken another advice and finally bought two sheets of inhomogeneous, fairly hard foam - 6x3 ft / 2x1 m and 4,7 ''/ 12 cm thick. It looks like as if the vegetable side dish has been grinded into a foam mesh. It is made up of all kind of - I guess - foam leftover and molded into a large block which is then cut into sheets.
My daughter has just loved jumping on the sheets and I had to trade in a promise of a trampoline to be able to recover my absorbers, but alas, finally the sheets are now behind the MLs.
And this is the point, where I have to admit, - after my initial joy that lasted about one track - I became a bit discouraged.
First I have played an imho well recorded ‘demo’ disk of Max Lässer's Ark - A Different Kind Of Blue (B&W). I said wow, yesss, this is what I wanted; I now have a wider and more defined space and still have my fine resolution.
And then I started to spin other records from all genres and I gradually started to loose my initial enthusiasm; the absorbers appear to be working, in fact, they appear to be overworking and absorbed some of the music as well…
I feel that I have lost some detail and dynamics, at least when moving back to my listening position (8-9 ft / 2,5-3 m). Funny that most of it comes back if I move closer to the speakers (~5 ft / 1,5 m). So I guess I managed to make two near filed monitors out of the Monoliths - call that an achievement.
...
There are several factors which makes the direction of my next vague;
After all, I did not say yet, but the room / placement is a bit odd, asymmetric. I’m thinking about narrowing the sheets from 3.1 ft / 1,05 m to about 2.4 ft / 80 cm or cutting out the size of the original diffuser from the foam and inserting the diffuser back behind the speakers (but then with an absorber frame). But these changes are difficult to undo or simulate.
Not to mention that it’s not easy experimenting with biamped Monoliths (stiff cables), king size sponges weighting about 35 kg / 70 pounds each and light but fragile diffusers. I might try to move the MLs to a more symmetric position, but I do not know if I can get away with it. Ya know, the WAF factor… I’m also wondering if I should get a mike and make some measurement of different room treatment version at least to know if I’m going in the right direction or not at all. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but why does it honk?
Anyhow, I’ll keep you updated if I open a new chapter, but the story isn’t likely to unfold very quickly.
Talking to other audio loonies I was dragged into the realm of room treatments. I have invited a fellow, who has made some measurements and I ended up with two diffusers placed behind the speakers (and one actually in between them). It was a definite improvement, though I have to admit, that bringing the speakers front from about 1,5-2 feet to 3-3,5 was the best bang for the buck change so far - albeit insufficient.
Then two friends came over; and they had two absorbers that we have placed behind the speakers. It was a definite improvement over the diffusers but the downside was that these were made with mineral wool and neither of us was convinced that the mineral wool will stay in its designated housing.
Then a bit later the overall picture improved light-years with a new preamp, cables and a DAC (despite all of them being reasonably priced local DIYs) but imaging still had plenty of room for improvement.
The diffusers were OK, but I have recalled that the absorbers gave better results in terms of soundstage and imaging.
To find an alternative of mineral wool (or glass fiber) I have taken another advice and finally bought two sheets of inhomogeneous, fairly hard foam - 6x3 ft / 2x1 m and 4,7 ''/ 12 cm thick. It looks like as if the vegetable side dish has been grinded into a foam mesh. It is made up of all kind of - I guess - foam leftover and molded into a large block which is then cut into sheets.
My daughter has just loved jumping on the sheets and I had to trade in a promise of a trampoline to be able to recover my absorbers, but alas, finally the sheets are now behind the MLs.
And this is the point, where I have to admit, - after my initial joy that lasted about one track - I became a bit discouraged.
First I have played an imho well recorded ‘demo’ disk of Max Lässer's Ark - A Different Kind Of Blue (B&W). I said wow, yesss, this is what I wanted; I now have a wider and more defined space and still have my fine resolution.
And then I started to spin other records from all genres and I gradually started to loose my initial enthusiasm; the absorbers appear to be working, in fact, they appear to be overworking and absorbed some of the music as well…
I feel that I have lost some detail and dynamics, at least when moving back to my listening position (8-9 ft / 2,5-3 m). Funny that most of it comes back if I move closer to the speakers (~5 ft / 1,5 m). So I guess I managed to make two near filed monitors out of the Monoliths - call that an achievement.
...
There are several factors which makes the direction of my next vague;
After all, I did not say yet, but the room / placement is a bit odd, asymmetric. I’m thinking about narrowing the sheets from 3.1 ft / 1,05 m to about 2.4 ft / 80 cm or cutting out the size of the original diffuser from the foam and inserting the diffuser back behind the speakers (but then with an absorber frame). But these changes are difficult to undo or simulate.
Not to mention that it’s not easy experimenting with biamped Monoliths (stiff cables), king size sponges weighting about 35 kg / 70 pounds each and light but fragile diffusers. I might try to move the MLs to a more symmetric position, but I do not know if I can get away with it. Ya know, the WAF factor… I’m also wondering if I should get a mike and make some measurement of different room treatment version at least to know if I’m going in the right direction or not at all. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but why does it honk?
Anyhow, I’ll keep you updated if I open a new chapter, but the story isn’t likely to unfold very quickly.
